Four of the top six nations in the world will battle for the Pan American Games softball gold medal starting on Sunday. The women’s softball competition at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games will feature the best of the best, with the top players from world No. 1 USA, No. 3 Puerto Rico, No. 4 Canada, No. 6 Mexico, No. 14 Cuba, No. 15 Venezuela, No. 18 Peru and No. 55 Chile taking part in the competition.
The eight teams will open the Pan Am Games with a four-day group stage. Chile, Mexico, USA and Venezuela will face off in Group A; while Canada, Cuba, Peru and Puerto Rico will play in Group B.
The top two teams in the final standings of each group will move to the Super Round, securing a place in the medal games. The top two teams in the Super Round will compete for the gold medal, while third and fourth will play the bronze medal game.
The gold medal game is scheduled on 4 November, 2 p.m. local time, while the bronze medal game will be played at 10 a.m. the same day.
There are 14 Olympians among the 128 participating players, 13 of them from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The list includes five silver medallists with USA (Ali Aguilar, Ally Carda, Rachel Garcia, Dejah Mulipola and Haylie McCleney); and seven bronze medallists with Canada (Emma Entzminger, Larissa Franklin, Sara Groenewegen, Kelsey Harshman, Janet Leung, Erika Polidori and Natalie Wideman). The other Olympians are Mexican outfielder Stefania Aradillas (Tokyo 2020) and Venezuelan infielder Yuruby Alicart (Beijing 2008).
Five of the eight teams in Santiago 2023 competed in July in the WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup Group Stage, played in Ireland, Spain and Italy: USA, Puerto Rico and Canada advanced to the World Cup Finals in 2024, while Cuba and Venezuela missed qualifying for the final stage. A total of 63 athletes from the World Cup will participate in Santiago 2023.
Since softball’s debut in the Pan American Games in 1979, USA has won nine gold medals, including Lima 2019, the latest edition of the multi-sports event. Canada has won the tournament in the other two editions (1983 and 2015). Puerto Rico has collected three silver medals (1979, 1986 and 1995), while Venezuela has won one (2007). Cuba has four bronze medals to their name.
